At least 17 children and a teacher were killed and more than 40 people injured when the roof of a private school collapsed in Peshawar, the capital of Pakistan's Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, on Thursday, police said.
The incident occurred in Dir Colony in the inner city area, Peshawar Capital City Police chief Mian Saeed said.
Seventeen students and a lady teacher were killed, while over 40 people were injured in the incident, he said.
Lady Reading Hospital spokesperson Muhammad Asim said an emergency was declared at the hospital to treat the injured. All the children killed in the incident were aged 13 or younger, he said.
Rescue officials said 25 injured children have been taken to medical facilities.
Rescue teams were clearing the debris and searching for children and school staff who might still be trapped beneath the collapsed structure.
Pakistan's Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif in a statement expressed "deep sorrow and grief over the loss of precious lives".
"The Prime Minister extends his condolences to the bereaved families and prays for them to have the strength and patience to bear this irreparable loss," the statement said.
Roof and building collapses are common across Pakistan, mainly because of poor safety standards and shoddy construction materials in the South Asian country of more than 240 million people.
In June this year more than a dozen children were killed in a roof collapse at a tutoring centre in the eastern city of Lahore.
In 2025, 27 people were killed and 10 injured when a five-storey building collapsed in the impoverished area of Lyari in the southern city of Karachi.
(With inputs from PTI and AFP)